So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish

I didn’t think I’d be most broken up at losing Sopel – not because of his play, but because he’s just so awesome as a person. I’ll definitely miss all three, but teams need to keep moving or die stagnant.

Is Beach really ready to grab a roster spot? I was under the impression that he was still a year or two from making the leap.

that the secondary purpose for Sopes was to get Hammer up to speed? Seems like Hammer became a man during the finals under the influence of Sopes.

Buff as said here many times is a part-time player and for sure not worth 3 mil in today’s game. Love Sopel beyond belief. Such a tough player, leader, etc but just like Madden we gained a lot of leadership with our long run this year. Eager was frustrating and never lived up to his potential. Having with stacking picks and yes I do see more movies. Steeger, hopefully Huet and probably one other minor deal. Regardless the core is intact and we will be right there again. I don’t see Beach just yet and frankly couldn’t we bring back Frasor for cheap and that would allow us to keep Kyle down at Rockford? Hope so.

So was Buff the big fat dolphin to our favorite fish? At least it looks like we’re keeping the rat.

How much did we clear? How much more to go? I’m thinking Versteeg is next on the trade block.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=325516

this move makes no sense to me other than that he wants to be around rick dudley

It’s now $59.4 million.

especially for youth and draft picks. Bodes well for the team’s future when the GM is pruning and re-shaping. I’d be happy if I were a Hawks fan.

OK, I thought ANY trade would bother me a lot, but this one isn’t killing me inside. Though I really did like Buff. I think Eager and Sopes are easy to replace.

It’s the next trade that will probably get to me. And if it’s just to dump salary I’d expect it to be Steeger, though I think we’ll miss his great hands. And you just know that he’ll be dumping the puck in all the time for his next team.

Let’s get Nemo and TOFTBO locked up long term on the relative cheap. But more important, let’s hope Stan isn’t too short sighted with the signings.

To me there is no player that’s an RFA/UFA right now that is more important that Biscuit’s RFA year next year. Let’s make the moves to ensure we can lock him up long term next year while still being able to defend our crown effectively.

Maybe we can use an improbability drive to fix the rest of our cap woes. McClure, You’re turning into a penguin. Stop it! Anyone who has not read this book, should do so now. And no the movie DOES NOT do this book any justice. Anyway, congrats Dunc. Thank you, and good luck, Buff, Sopes, and Eager. Stan, So far so good on turning chicken shit into chicken soup.

But found it humorous that on the the Thrashers site they cited Eager as: Ben Eaves.

So I didn’t see it in any other threads with all of the trade talk, but Ottawa got hit with a 5.5 quake today. Anyone know if the Senators organization and buildings are all good? Would be a big shame if it hurt them in any way =\

I’ll applaud Stan if he can hold onto Versteeg, which I think means something creative on the Huey sitch.

Delivering all key players other than Buff and Versteeg is not, IMO, a great GM accomplishment.

All others (Nintendo, Nemo) are probably safe at ths point.

Also, good point on Biscuit next year- clearly a core guy.

Douglas Adams is God.

What number is retired by all of MLB?

17 goals, 17 assists, minus-7 +/-

• we made up $5M
• we definitely broke even in terms of overall talent, potential or otherwise
• we moved pieces that, while i will sorely miss them, were very moveable. (see above…those would be byfugliens regular season stats. forgive me when i say that i dont think losing that line kills our chances next season.)

once we get past all of the sentimental values of buff, eager, and sopes, its pretty clear this was a phenomenal trade, given the circumstances. do i expect the thrashers to be cheered upon taking the ice in the uc? yes. just checked, they dont come this year. but you get my point. we will always be grateful to these three, and they will always be cheered inside our walls, no matter their colors. 15 years from now when theyre all retired, theyll want to be remembered as hawks. i have no doubt. but today, june 24 2010, this better than the best envisioned start to the “capocalypse”. goodnight.

How much Cap space does that change?

All I see are the articles talking about the Thrashers “eyeballing” him?

How much of a hit we would take if they buy out Huet’s contract?

This just in…
The Thrashers will have more black players than the Braves.

don’t know if that’s true, but if it is….

“Bowman gets points for moving decisively, and I’m sure even he isn’t happy he had to do it. Fact is, the only person who is sure to smile over this is Roberto Luongo.”

Buff will not live up to the hype. Sopel was steady , there is lots of steady out there. Eager is a banger…a time a dozen. Big thank you to all of them. and of’course they should thank the team for the "Cup. Pure salary dump. more to come. How many first round draft picks do we have this year?

Worse case is he goes to the minors/or is cut. What happens to his salary?

What’s with all of this love for Sop’s? You are all nuts. I grant you that he was loved by his teammates, and must be a quality off the ice guy, BUT he was nearly the death of us all season in our end. Our fortunes completely turned back to the positive when he went back to playing 8 minutes a game and Soupy returned to his normal ice allotments. Sopel’s issue is that he just can’t move anymore. The game is way too fast. He can’t turn and go for the life of him, so our puck control “speed coming back up the ice at you game” reverted to try to make a deep pass out of our on zone game which didn’t work nearly as well. A team committed to the fore check eats him up, and his best move becomes lying down in front of 90 MPH’ers. I’ll miss his little dance during the National Anthem and his Alice Cooper good looks (?), but not much else. You guys that love his game are the ones booing Campbell. Would’ve hoped that we all would have learned that this game has moved to speed and puck control. Stan is the Man for this deal!

I’m gone for one night and all hell breaks loose. Kaner has sex, Duncs wins the Norris, and half the fucking team is traded.

I had a feeling Buff was gone. He is a good player that is giving us great value in return based on his outstanding performance in a few playoff games. Not to mention that salary needed to be moved.

Sopel will be missed but I think more for his gritty, shot blocking than for anything he really does with the puck. Again, he was getting paid too much for 8-9 minutes a game.

I didn’t expect Eager to resign so it is what it is.

We should all be greatful to get something good in return for what was a necessary salary dump.

That being said, I’ll never forget the contributions of these players on the way to winning the Cup. And I’ll be rooting for them in their new home.

Birdwatchers Anonymous was saying Reasoner was their best PK guy all year.

picture Eager sitting at a bus stop with a box of chocolates looking like Forrest Gump?

Funny, Canuck fans obsession with Hawks.

For whatever reason, for two years in a row Buffy killed us. Destroyed Luongo and our tiny defence……………so from a canucks perspective, this is a good deal for us in that we don’t have to deal with that monster anymore. For whatever reason Buffy hated the nucks and played like a man possessed against us, all 270lbs of him.

Everyone keeps ragging on him. Does he lack hockey smarts or something? He fought Steve Downie (admittedly his teammate and team captain at the time, but if what I read is true, he deserved it). Is he just not a good hockey player?

PS. I fucking hate Steve Downie.

and the fact that we got a first rounder for no one who is worth a first rounder, that’s not too shabby.